I’m feeling depressed today…taking the rest of the day off, get
home, think about things a little. There’s nothing wrong here, just
need to sleep for a while, for my sanity. 🙂
Fu Yu Kopi Shop
This is Fu Yu Kopi Shop at Sekama. It has a larger variety of dim sum and is famed for its fried prawn kolo mee.
The place has a wooden balcony type extension, that’s the best
seating arrangements for a breakfast…it’s nice, you can see the
bustling morning activity around you.
This is 99 Dim Sum, one of the stalls in Fu Yu Kopi Shop. The
proprietor is a friendly woman who has a large repertoire of dim sum
dishes…
…as you can see here. The dim sums here are mostly one off i.e.
one of a kind, so when that dish is gone, it’s gone for the day.
I think we ordered five dishes but she forgot about one of
them…either that, or the one that we chose was out. There’s also
chili sauce provided, which goes well with some dim sums.
This is chicken bits in Thai chili sauce. It’s very nice and flavorful, with the chicken meat flavor infused through broiling.
Here’s a variant of siu mai which doesn’t contain pork, but a
conglomeration of other ingredients. It has mystery meat and other
fillers.
This is a fish based dim sum wrapped in seaweed strips. It’s basically a large fish oblong.
I thought this was har kau, but it’s not. It’s a mostly vegetable
based dim sum…in fact, I didn’t think I tasted any meat in there.
Here’s the dish this place is famous for – prawn fried kolo mee. It
has two prawn fried batter pieces on top, but otherwise, it’s a normal
kolo mee. The fried prawn mini fillets were good though.
It’s a good place to have breakfast, with the al fresco (this term
should be banned in Malaysian food reviews, since most of our dining
establishments are al fresco by nature) balcony and the hustle and
bustle of the Sekama district.
DXM tablets – Cofdex 30 mg dextromethorphan
This is a bottle of 1000 Cofdex tablets. It contains 30 mg of
dextromethorphan (DXM) per tablet and is mainly used as a cough
suppressant. However, DXM has a cult following due to its remarkable
NMDA antagonist effects. It’s used recreationally by people who like
psychedelics or just a good old mind fuck. I would describe the
experience as a cross between ketamine (another NMDA antagonist) and
acid (LSD). I usually take 20 tablets but you need to calculate your
body weight to know what dose will push you to the trippy third plateau.
The interesting aspect of DXM is that it brings you to different
plateaus, with each one giving you a different experience, depending on
the dosage (which is calculated by body weight). I’m about 56 kg so 600
mg would put me to the third plateau, which is the one I always aim
for. I didn’t like DXM the first time I tried it, I thought it didn’t
give me much effects. The same goes for the second time. However, it
put me into a very heavy trip the third time, where you can see my thought process on DXM [sixthseal.com]. That post was written under the influence of DXM. It’s a real mind fuck.
It’s hard to obtain Robitussin DX here and pure DXM tablets are hard
to find too. You do not want antihistamines or pseudoephedrine in your
dose if you’re aiming for a high plateau. I was surprised to find that
my pharmacy friend has a bottle of it and I got it off him for RM 150.
We didn’t count the tablets; I just offered him that price by looking
at the remainders. It turned out to be more than 300 tablets. I take
DXM occasionally when I want to learn something or just trip.
The trick to getting effects from DXM is to fast (don’t eat
anything) for at least 18 hours beforehand and then dump the whole load
at once. Otherwise, it’ll just give you a slight puzzling drunken
feeling, and not a full out trip. This one need an empty stomach for it
to “work” and you need to “hold it down” i.e. not throw up. 😉 I only
learned that during the third time I tried it.
DXM is not commonly available in Malaysia – the cough suppressant of
choice is codeine, but if you see DXM HBr (without other active
ingredients) and you like ketamine, it feels something like that – with
less euphoria and more mind fuck. 🙂
Fock Hai Tim Sam Cafe
Fock Hai Tim Sam Cafe has been a permanent fixture of Jalan Padungan
for over 10 years. It first opened its doors a decade ago and has been
serving basic dim sum ever since.
This is a really old skool dim sum establishment, what they’ll call
a tea house back in the days. They have a very limited array of dim sum
dishes, just the basics, plus several varieties of paus.
We ordered some sio bee (pork filling in a paper thin wrapping). It tasted alright, but it’s not the best I’ve ever had…
Their har kau (prawn filling with translucent wrapping) is on a
whole other level though. It’s really good! I’ve never had such good
har kau outside expensive specialized dim sum establishments. Highly
recommended!
This is another staple of dim sum breakfasts – lo mai kai. It’s a
rice based dim sum, with meat at the bottom, steamed in fully wrapped
foil to infuse the rice with the meat flavors.
This place serves good lo mai kai but there’s a pet peeve of mine
that manifests itself here…they don’t fully de-bone the chicken, so
you have to spit out bits of bone…
Nevertheless, it’s a good place for a quick breakfast if you work
somewhere in Jalan Padungan…which would comprise of a sizable amount
of Kuching people, since it’s in the heart of town. 🙂
“I don’t want to feel” – videos of me cutting myself
I was feeling particularly depressed last night and thought it would
be interesting to use a balisong (butterfly knife) to do some
self-inflicted wounds. Okay, it wasn’t coz it was interesting, it was
coz I was feeling down. :p I didn’t “feel” anything, everything is so
routine, so numb, so meaningless, and I am so fragile, so replaceable,
so useless.
Well, I punched the wall in frustration and I liked that. It made me
“feel”. I didn’t feel the pain much so I thought I’ll cut myself. Two
cuts, like an X, with my el cheapo balisong. I tried looking for my
Benchmade but I couldn’t find it, and I couldn’t be bothered to look,
so I just used this one.
Download: I don’t want to feel [sixthseal.com]
The interesting is, I went from “I want to feel” to “I don’t want to
feel” coz the world is a shitty place to live in, as I felt at that
time. I’m feeling better now, this video is the manifestation of the
sixthseal.com Quarterly Serotonin Depletion Moment (QSDM). I get
depressed every once in a while. I don’t know why, no drugs involved, I
just get depressed.
Download: X marks the spot [sixthseal.com]
Here’s the second part of the video. I just felt down and kept on
repeating “I don’t want to feel” for some reason. I should have used a
razor blade though…and there are two things I learnt from this:
1. I need to sharpen my balisong.
2. I really need to sharpen my balisong. 😉
I mean seriously, I use that thing so much it’s become blunt. I was like “Draw blood, dammit!”…it used to be very sharp.
Here’s what it looked like this morning. I think the uneven cuts
don’t look so good, so I might have to touch it up a little for a nice
scar. I hope it’ll scar anyway. It felt good, cutting myself. The
strange thing is, I didn’t feel any pain, but I felt ALIVE!
I FELT! It gave me the catharsis that I needed. I slept like a baby
after that. It’s nice. I felt so alive. I just might be interested in
this self-inflicting wounds thing. With God as my witness, I felt! 🙂
Disclaimer: I’m perfectly sane and this is… (Choose below)
1. If you’re my friend:
…just a publicity stunt for sixthseal.com I mean come on, the cuts aren’t even deep, superficial at best.
2. If you’re my coworkers:
…mind your own business. I don’t bring my personal problems to work.
3. If you’re someone who loves me:
…er, I accidentally cut myself…twice. 😉
P/S – Don’t make a big deal out of this, it’s not a “suicide
attempt”, a “plea for help” or any of that bullshit psycho-babble.
There’s nothing melodramatic here, it’s just all in good fun…alright?
bing! lamb wrap
I didn’t go out for lunch today due to a backlog of work that I need
to get done. I wasn’t hungry anyway, so I just figured I’ll skip lunch.
However, Bernice came in with a paper bag from bing!
She bought me a lamb wrap from bing! the coffee shop that everyone seems to like in Kuching.
The lamb wrap comes with a small tub of sauces – mustard, chilli and mayonnaise and the familiar orange bing! sticker.
I’ve never had their wraps before – there’s a lot of crisp, fresh
lettuce with a bed of lamb meat. I like the taste of game, as she
knows. I like mutton.
I just poured the tub of sauce into the wrap, rolled it up and ate it. It’s good. Thanks for lunch, Bernice! 🙂
Kopiko vs United Coffee Candy
There are two leading brands of coffee candy containing real coffee
inside i.e. it have real caffeine and is made of coffee powder/extract.
These are good sweets – they’re marketed as “coffee on the go” and it
really does feel like drinking coffee (if you eat enough).
The market leader is Kopiko, which has been around forever
(figuratively speaking). It hails from Indonesia, our neighbors to the
south and the retail price is about RM 2.40 for a 150 gram packet. It’s
made in Jarkata, Indonesia and imported in. There is a local
manufacturer, but I prefer the imported ones.
Kopiko tastes sweet and I guesstimate that 10 of these little sweets
have the caffeine equivalent of a glass of iced coffee. It’s the most
popular coffee sweets and tastes good, with aromatic coffee notes. It’s
the cheaper one of the two and Kopiko has diversified into making real
coffee – instant coffee and coffee beans.
The other leading brand is a newcomer and is called United Coffee
Candy. Hailing from our neighbors to the north, this product of
Thailand retails for about twice the price of Kopiko at RM 4.40. The
packet is 200 grams though, and it’s imported from Chonburi, Thailand.
United Coffee Candy beats Kopiko in the taste department, from most
taste testers…now, this is one candy that tastes like real kopi peng.
United Coffee Candy is flatter in shape than Kopiko and but packs a
little more punch in the caffeine department. My qualitative estimate
puts 8 United Coffee Candy sweets as equivalent to the amount of
caffeine in a typical glass of iced coffee i.e. 10 mg per sweet,
assuming that a typical glass of coffee has 80 mg of caffeine.
I prefer United Coffee Candy over Kopiko but Kopiko has a large
distribution network, so usually I just get Kopiko. Of course, nothing
can substitute a nice triple espresso, but I think of these sweets as
“booster doses” – something to keep the caffeine levels high throughout
the day after your morning coffee(s). 🙂
Tok Janggut Cafe review
This is Tok Janggut Cafe in ChongLin Park. It serves a wide range of
murtabak containing esoteric fillings like camel in the mornings and
probably the best nasi briyani in town for lunch. I went there with the
new staff intake of Huygens Asia for lunch today.
Here’s what the main eating room looks like – the place is clean and
it has a reputation for good food. It opened quite recently, sometime
earlier this year.
Towards the back is the nasi briyani preparation place. The nasi
briyani unta (camel) is good. Nasi briyani is a type of savory rice,
it’s really good, infused with a plethora of spices. Tok Janggut serves
a wide range of nasi briyani – plain, chicken, fish, mutton and their
flagship camel variant.
The afternoon lunch crowd usually goes for mixed rice or nasi
briyani. Murtabak and roti canai is only served during the mornings.
There’s also an air-conditioned side room that’s very popular during
the afternoon due to the heat. I went there today with three of my
coworkers. Two new marketing department people came in this month and
we went out today to get to know each other better.
I had Tongkat Ali for my drink. It’s coffee with tongkat ali for RM 1.90.
This is what I ordered – camel briyani. I love camel, the meat is
slightly tough, with just a hint of game and an interesting texture.
Here’s a closer look at the camel meat. Sufian also had nasi briyani, but he went for chicken instead.
This is Tok Janggut’s fried rice that Elvinna ordered. She tried her best to finish it, commendable effort. 😉
Here’s what Bernice ordered – Rice and Camel Curry. She gave me
nearly a quarter of her plate but I still managed to finish mine and
the additional load. Nearly, anyway. :p
This is another macro shot of the camel. Camel is good. Mmm…camel…
L-R: Mohd. Sufian, Elvinna, Bernice, Huai Bin (me).
Life Cafe review
Life Cafe is a little quaint place hidden along a narrow street. The
place exudes a charming old ambience, with its wooden chairs and
constructs, the sliding doors, and the intentional ancient decorations.
The interior is air conditioned, with minimal incandescent lighting.
There’s a narrow brick walled enclave to the side and normal sitting
arrangements on the other side. The place makes you feel like you’ve
stepped into some old-fashioned place out of time.
There’s also a private dining area at the back, which is walled off
from the main area. This tatami style section is raised, with a short
table and mats, cushions and futons for sitting. Basically, you sit on
the floor and the table clearance doesn’t leave much room for your
legs, but it’s comfy.
The waitress recommended a range of pies that were freshly baked.
She assured us that it was good, and my coworker, who’s been here
before, agreed. We went for the chicken pie.
It’s good, the pastry is crispy and the meat filling is just nice.
I was recommended their Life Ice Cream Coffee. It’s coffee, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to replace the ice cubes.
I ordered a boiled herbal egg for starters. It’s served whole and un-cracked, in a saucer of soy sauce.
The herbal egg tasted of herbs, and is colored green, even the yolk. It was alright to me.
I went for the Life Mutton Spiced Rice for the main. The mutton is nice and tender, great dish.
My coworker had Life Mutton Spiced Noodles. It tasted about the same
but the noodles are infused with something I can’t put my finger on.
It’s good.
Life Cafe also has an unusual specialty – Crocodile meat soup with
red dates and ginseng. It’s RM 12 for a bowl, which we shared, and the
soup is boiled to perfection, with the ginseng flavor shining through
brightly.
The crocodile meat was good too. The boiling process made it tender
and it tasted strange, but nice. Kuching has a crocodile farm which
rears crocodiles and sells the meat to various food establishments here
and I believe it’s exported as well.
Life Cafe is a good place to have a quiet lunch – grab the tatami
style seats at the back if they’re not taken. It’s the best spot in the
place. 🙂
Life Cafe review
Life Cafe is a little quaint place hidden along a narrow street. The
place exudes a charming old ambience, with its wooden chairs and
constructs, the sliding doors, and the intentional ancient decorations.
The interior is air conditioned, with minimal incandescent lighting.
There’s a narrow brick walled enclave to the side and normal sitting
arrangements on the other side. The place makes you feel like you’ve
stepped into some old-fashioned place out of time.
There’s also a private dining area at the back, which is walled off
from the main area. This tatami style section is raised, with a short
table and mats, cushions and futons for sitting. Basically, you sit on
the floor and the table clearance doesn’t leave much room for your
legs, but it’s comfy.
The waitress recommended a range of pies that were freshly baked.
She assured us that it was good, and my coworker, who’s been here
before, agreed. We went for the chicken pie.
It’s good, the pastry is crispy and the meat filling is just nice.
I was recommended their Life Ice Cream Coffee. It’s coffee, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to replace the ice cubes.
I ordered a boiled herbal egg for starters. It’s served whole and un-cracked, in a saucer of soy sauce.
The herbal egg tasted of herbs, and is colored green, even the yolk. It was alright to me.
I went for the Life Mutton Spiced Rice for the main. The mutton is nice and tender, great dish.
My coworker had Life Mutton Spiced Noodles. It tasted about the same
but the noodles are infused with something I can’t put my finger on.
It’s good.
Life Cafe also has an unusual specialty – Crocodile meat soup with
red dates and ginseng. It’s RM 12 for a bowl, which we shared, and the
soup is boiled to perfection, with the ginseng flavor shining through
brightly.
The crocodile meat was good too. The boiling process made it tender
and it tasted strange, but nice. Kuching has a crocodile farm which
rears crocodiles and sells the meat to various food establishments here
and I believe it’s exported as well.
Life Cafe is a good place to have a quiet lunch – grab the tatami
style seats at the back if they’re not taken. It’s the best spot in the
place. 🙂
